Month: October 2010

My husband and I are planning to go back to Europe, this time bringing along not only Marcus but also Zach and Lia. We are planning to do it on May next year so that kids are on summer vacation. It was supposed to be April in time for our anniversary and my birthday but I thought it would be better to go after Easter. I am tasked by my husband to make the itinerary and to estimate our travel budget. Though I am now checking out some travel deals, I still find it too early to book flights and accommodation (not to mention the visa application). So I just noted down the planned date and corresponding location. I also have a rough estimate on the budget but I’d rather not post.

Initially, we were planning for a London-Paris-Germany-Switzerland-Italy trip. Then looking at the map, we realized that we could go to Greece by boat from Italy, so it became London-Paris-Italy-Greece. But then as I was checking out Italy, I realized that it’s better for us to explore that country first rather than tightening our budget and schedule to fit in Greece.

So the final plan, so far, of what I call the great travel 2011 is as follows:

May 2 – Flight to London
May 3-4 London
May 5 – Train to Paris
May 6-10 Paris
May 11 Train to Italy
May 12-18 Italy (Milan-Venice-Rome)

I still don’t have any idea if we’ll go back to Manila via Italy or we’ll go back to London so that we can just get a roundtrip Mla-London-Mla.

More so, I don’t know if I can handle 3 kids that long and that far. I don’t want to spoil the fun though of planning by worrying about that.

So, that’s it. I’ll make updates as soon as changes/improvements have been made.

I have to admit I’ve never been loyal to my chosen degree, i.e. Industrial Engineering. Well, I guess I just lived up to what IEs are known for (or what other engineering majors would teasingly call us), that we are ‘Jack-of-all-trade, Expert of nothing.’ I don’t agree though on the ‘expert of nothing’ part because IEs have proven over the years how they can implement significant changes in the company, not to mention lead it and be part of the top management.

In my case, in a span of 9 years I’ve been into Warehouse Management, Systems Analysis and Implementation, Risk Management and Internal Audit. I must say that each requires totally different set of skills and knowledge. But among all these, Financial Audit has been my waterloo. Whenever I hear the words chart of accounts, journal entry, general ledger and so on, my mind would literally shut down. Surprisingly though, it didn’t stop me from getting a Financial Audit engagement and an Internal Audit Certification.

This time, after 3 years of much thinking, I finally accepted the fact that I have to say goodbye to all those previously acquired knowledge, skills and experience and start learning about internet marketing. Although I’ve always been into Information Technology, I realized that internet marketing is really something else. It’s nosebleed for me every time I hear or read about Search Engine Optimization and all those stuff. I practically do SEO without understanding it. BUT… just like financial audit, I am hopeful that I’ll be able to turn this liability into an asset. (See, I am even using accounting words this time) And I hope I can be confident with SEO and Pay Per Click (PPC) in no time.

I know there’s still 3 months left before the year ends but I feel so much has happened already that I have to write them down before I forget them altogether. The year has been crazy, positively crazy if I may call it that.

The hightlights of the year started when Gary found a way to go to Europe. I must admit at first I didn’t took it seriously because I thought that the organizer of the SES London Conference wouldn’t take Gary’s interest seriously as well. But I was completely wrong. SES and PAGCOR’s (Gary’s employer then) approval gave us a couple of weeks to get British visa and get approved. Unfortunately, no time to process Shengen visa so we just maximized our UK trip by including in our itenirary Edinburgh, Scotland and Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Almost the same time, we said goodbye to our very first car (a second-hand Honda civic we bought from my father) and bought an SUV. We got the Montero as soon as we arrived from London, March 1, Marcus’ 11th birthday.

Summer has been busy as well. We started it by trying out the sands of Poro Point, La Union. Summer though was not vacation for Marcus because I enroled him to tutorial (to help him acquire good study habits) and Neurotherapy for his ADHD. I also took the time to transfer Zach from Montessori to a bigger school. Gary on the other hand has his hands full with business work and special projects that he even gave up his employment in PAGCOR.

May 6 was our only daughter’s first birthday so imagine the pressure I went through thinking about the party as a whole. (budget, location, give-aways, invitation, party host and so on)

July 17 was Zach’s 5th birthday and he’s been bugging us for a Jollibee birthday party for months. Giving-in to his request, we celebrated his birthday at Jollibee, Dagupan together with family, relatives and friends from Gary’s side. Next Day, July 18, was the vehicular accident at SCTEX.

After the accident, we had to face so many things. Both positive and well, challenging things. Insurance claims, filing a case, physical and emotional recovery, getting over what was lost… just to name a few. Blessing in disguise, Gary’s sister had to give up her Innova so we decided to get it and just continue paying for the monthly amortization. Two months after the accident, the car insurance claim still being processed, the Innova has been a great help to us not to mention the driver we hired.

August 20, my sister finally gave birth to a healthy baby boy and few days after, our grandfather (father’s side) died.

This October, we rented the unit beside ours so that we can renovate our kitchen and flooring. Also, I finally embraced the fact that I really have to have Internet Marketing expertise and I’m now about to start learning about PPC.

Big things came and bigger things are on the way. God willing, the rest of 2010 and 2011 will be more exciting as it is now. So help us God.